How to See Recently Deleted Apps on iPhone (App Store)

iPhone has no Recently Deleted folder for apps. To see recently deleted apps on iPhone, open the App Store, tap your photo at the top right, tap Apps, then tap "Not on this iPhone". Every app tied to your Apple Account that is not currently installed appears there, each with a cloud button to reinstall it.

The wording is what trips people up. Photos, Notes and Files each keep a Recently Deleted album that holds items for around 30 days. Apps do not work that way. When you delete an app, it leaves the phone immediately and nothing on the device holds it in reserve.

What survives is the record of the download. Your Apple Account remembers every app you have ever installed, free or paid, and the App Store can show you that history with the installed apps filtered out. That filtered view is the closest thing iOS has to a deleted-apps list, and it is the one worth learning.

How to see recently deleted apps on iPhone in the App Store

1. Open the App Store and tap your photo or initials in the top-right corner.

2. Tap Apps. Apple's own support pages use two labels here depending on iOS version — on some devices the row reads Apps & Purchase History, in which case tap that and then tap Your Apps.

3. Tap Not on this iPhone at the top of the list. The view switches from every app on your account to only the ones missing from this device.

4. Tap the cloud button beside an app to put it back. You are not charged again for something you have already bought, and paid apps redownload for free.

What the dates actually mean

Each row shows a date under the app's name, and the list runs newest first. It is tempting to read that as a deletion timeline. It is not.

Apple does not record when you deleted an app anywhere you can see. The date shown is when the app was added to your account, so the ordering reflects when you first downloaded each app, not when it left your phone. In practice this still helps — an app you installed a fortnight ago and removed last week will sit near the top — but an app you downloaded in 2019 and deleted yesterday will be buried deep in the list.

If you want something genuinely chronological, use Purchase History on the same account screen. It is organised by billing date and filters to the last 90 days by default, with a control at the top to widen the range. Because it is a billing record rather than an app list, it is the better tool when you remember roughly when but not what.

Faster routes and platform variants

On a computer, reportaproblem.apple.com shows the same purchase history in a browser window, where a full-size search field makes hunting for a half-remembered name much less painful than scrolling on a phone.

On a Mac, open the App Store and click your name at the bottom of the sidebar. On an iPad the tab is labelled "Not on this iPad". If you are in a Family Sharing group, the screen offers My Apps alongside each family member's name — you can see and redownload what they have shared, and they can see what you have shared.

What this does not do

Reinstalling an app is not the same as restoring it. Deleting an app removes its data along with it, so a redownloaded app usually opens as a fresh install unless the app itself syncs your account to a server. This is the difference between deleting and offloading: an offloaded app keeps its documents and data on the phone and leaves a cloud-marked icon on the Home Screen, which is why Offload Unused Apps is the safer setting if storage is your real problem.

It also will not cancel anything. Apple states plainly that deleting an app does not cancel its in-app subscriptions — those keep billing until you cancel them in your account settings. If you deleted an app to stop a charge, the charge is still running.

And it will not show you apps you have hidden. Hiding an app removes it from this purchase list entirely; to get it back, open your account screen, tap your name, scroll to Hidden Purchases, and unhide it there first. Storage-driven cleanups often mix hiding, offloading and deleting together, so it is worth checking all three before concluding an app has vanished — our guide to freeing up storage on iPhone covers which of them actually recovers space.

Common questions

How far back does the list go? To the beginning of the account. There is no time limit and nothing expires out of it, which is the opposite of how Recently Deleted works for deleted messages on iPhone and for photos.

An app I definitely had is missing. Two likely causes. You may have downloaded it under a different Apple Account, in which case sign in with that one and check again. Or the developer has pulled it from the App Store, and once an app is removed from sale it can no longer be redownloaded even though it stays in your history.

I can see the app but there is no cloud button. That usually means the app is still installed and simply missing from your Home Screen. Swipe left past your last Home Screen page to reach the App Library and search there, or check the App Library's Hidden folder, which needs Face ID or your passcode to open.

If the option isn't there

If the account screen will not open at all, you are probably signed out — the button at the top of the App Store reads Sign In rather than showing your photo. Sign in with the Apple Account you used to download the apps, not a newer one.

If parental controls are active on the device, purchase and account screens can be restricted, and the person who set up Screen Time will need to allow access. Beyond that, Apple Support can look up purchases on the account with you if the app matters enough to chase.